I just came across this comment on Twitter: "During the Middle Ages, university students carded and spun wool and flax during lectures, and it was often mandated."

I do realize that there are a lot of myths about the medieval period, and that "medieval period" is a vast swath of time during which nothing was static. But that claim flies against what I understand about draconian attitudes toward studious discipline. I also would have thought that university education in this age was a position of extreme privilege - would that really have been a population which engaged in textile production? Also, I would have thought that this kind of labor was heavily gendered - not something that men generally would have been engaging in at all.

Former history major here, but I only had one course covering pre-colonial Africa. With the lack of written sources, and the diversity of the continent, I know how hard it is to make any kind of broad claims about West African mythologies. Any recommendations are welcome!

EDIT: Just got home from work and saw all these replies, thanks so much everyone! This gives us a ton of homework to do but I’m excited for it. Love this subreddit!

First of all, sorry for english errors

I was not able to find anywhere a answer to this. Why the U.S. annexed the CSA? I mean, the south started the war, but from what i've read the constitution allowed states to seced at that time so, why the U.S. annexed them?

Greetings,

As per the title, I'm wondering how the atom bomb was 'felt' in the USSR. Did they already know of its existence and potential? Did they condemn it at first?

What about the general population? What was left of the orthodox church there?

Thanks!

The picture was acquired by the Library of Congress in 1949. Is there a way to know if the picture was or wasn't fabricated at a date after 1903? I'm debating with a friend

Hi, I have always been a fan of Roman history but the other day I realised I have never really looked in depth into how Christianity managed to rise in popularity and overtake the already entrenched beliefs of the empire past the idea of the church being more ‘organised’ than the relatively disparate pagan beliefs. If you also have good follow up resources on this period of Roman history that would be appreciated. Also, how did the followers of the religion react to the multiple periods of persecution? Thanks!

Doing research for a writing, what would bet the highest-ranking - social, governmental, political - that a commoner could rise to in 1450s England with all the class differences in play?

I only recently discovered how much later Islam originated than Christianity. The Council of Nicea was centuries before Islam came about. Jesus is mentioned in the Quran as an important prophet, and it seems plausible that a whole bunch of people inhabiting around the Mediterranean, could have spread Jesus' story to everybody in nearby places (modern day Spain, Algeria, Rome/Italy, into Turkey and Syria, Iraq, Egypt, etc.), and then Mohammad had a revelation which people paid attention to, also, in those countries, laying the foundations for this new religion. It sounds like the Jesus narrative gets to inhabit two religions at once, but it might be more like two competing narratives. So the Quran might have been written by people who read the Bible, by Christians themselves who now believe in Mohammed, and/or by people who had heard about Jesus' story in the past 600 ish years.

But how did the formation of another religion in the year 600-ish influence religion in Rome at the time? Were there formal opinions given by the Church? By that time Christianity is a half century old, formalized by the Roman Emperor in the 300s, and had been spreading since the events themselves happened via the Bible, but since some might have been illiterate, presumably by word of mouth as well.

I'm only now starting to learn about the wars between the Byzantine Empire and Muslim countries. Were they religiously motivated? I'm curious because of the connections between Islam and Christianity. Thank you

Hi, there are some decent books that have like one or two sentences about some fascinating historical facts.

For example: Melbourne was once called Batmania. Or the US considered dyeing Mt Fuji in Japan black during WWII, as a kind of psychological tactic.

But, as mentioned, usually there is too little info provided (you may have many questions left) and often there are no references and works cited, so basically you have to trust the author about accuracy and also don't know where to look for more in. So my question is if there are books that provide decent level of details about interesting historical facts and a bibliography perhaps for those who want to learn more? The target audience is senior high school students and the goal is making them interested in history. Thank you.

The event is talked about, or referred to commonly. Just wondering what we know factually about it, and the results of such an act. Thank you in advance.

I've read that US submarines were 2.5% of the naval fleet, but were responsible for 55% of Japanese merchart ships sunk. And that they crippled the Japanese economy. Did the Japanese not take submarines seriously? Was it just the result of a long drawn out war? Is Japan geographically suited for enemy submarines?

From media portrayals I often get the sense that messengers sent by rulers/important characters have there heads routinely sent back as a firm no.

Is this something that occurred frequently? And if so, were the people being sent just not that important so if they were killed then it’s no biggie, just probably war?

Cavalry remained dominant in European and Middle Eastern warfare up until the 17th century and remained in use even during WWI., while War Chariots fell out of favour fairly early. What was the reason for this?

The time/era that I specifically have in mind is from 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE. Specifically a generation before the Bronze Age Collapse. I'm trying to do research for a piece of fiction and the history books I've used to so far either overgeneralise the things that place in that time, or they go way into detail about each unnamed settlement of one particular culture.